The Problem

Number of wounds: 6.5 million people in the US alone are affected by chronic wounds. Worldwide there are more than 400 million wounds. Every time an incision is made, a wound is created.

Growing Trend: Chronic wounds are found most often in elderly and diabetic populations. The UN predicts that the number of older persons worldwide will double by 2050, and Diabetes Journal predicts that the number of Americans diagnosed with diabetes will increase 165% by 2050.

High Cost:Wound Repair and Regeneration estimates that more than 25 billion USD is spent on the treatment of only chronic wounds in the US annually. If we consider the number of wounds worldwide (400+ million) and research suggesting that even an uncomplicated wound costs about 8,000 USD to heal, the amount spent on wound care become astronomical.

No Standard: Only one aspect of wound care is universally accepted: wounds need to be properly documented to track changes and show healing or lack thereof. Unfortunately, not only is there no standard to documentation or measurement, 95% of facilities are still using manual measurement methods which have been proven to be highly inaccurate.

Why are we gathering data that is unreliable?

Hurdles: although systems for measuring wounds more accurately have been available for more than 10 years, they have penetrated less than 5% of the market. Many of the systems available are too costly, time consuming, or haven’t been integrated into the modern world of Electronic Health Records (EHR). Very little usable data is being collected.